electric fan problems...

rightwinged

New Member
Joined
May 7, 2010
Location
new bern
I installed an electric fan and serpetine belt system on my k-5 about 6 months ago. everything worked great till about a month ago, when the fuse to run the fan blew. no biggie, just replace fuse. so i replace fuse, pop, a week later, blew. i replaced one more time, and the very next time i drove it, it blew again. i am baffled by this, because it worked fine for 5 months, and then i cant even drive it because it blows. any suggestions? what could be making the fuse blow each time i drive it.
 
What else is on that circuit? It kinda sounds like the fan may be starting to crap out. Like it's drawing too much current for the fuse but only after operating for a short period of time.
 
Id trace all the wiring, most likely scenario to me is that a wire has rubbed against metal and chaffed and is shorting to ground.
 
thats what i thought, maybe rubbing on the alternator...nope, its extremely simple wiring. 12volt stud from alternator to motor, wire to relay from motor, relay goes to thermostat, fuse and ground. all wires have all insulation and are not rubbing. thats what it sounded like to me, the motor was taking a dump and drawing too many amps...but you really think it would crap out after 6 months? It was only driven 2 out of the 6 months, for maybe 5 days a month. there is nothing else on the circuit. it has an inline fuse and only powers the motor, nothing else. i cleaned up the grounds, and seperated the wires from eachother(electrical tape). it burned through 5 30amp fuses in 10 minutes, each one popping after 5 seconds of running.
 
what fan is this? And also, if it takes a full 5 sec, then it's probably not a dead short, but the fuse heats up and then pops. maybe the fan is drawing more than 30 amps, I'd get a current clamp, and measure the draw on the power wire to the fan.
 
its mr gasket fan. for the first 2 or 3 seconds, it draws 20aamps. then it spikes to about 24-25, drops again to 20, spikes once more to about 40 and blows fuse. im guessing the motor is bad causing it to draw too many amps. anybody agree?
 
Yep. Sometimes parts just crap out early in life. I'd think it's got warranty if it's only 6 mos old.
 
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